The instant invention relates to systems and methods for controlling the actuation of vehicle passenger safety devices in response to an event possibly requiring such actuation of the safety device and, more particularly, to systems and methods wherein the envelope of the received acceleration information is useful in controlling actuation of the safety device.
A variety of systems and methods for actuating vehicle safety devices are well known in the art. Such systems are used to sense an event such as a crash condition and, in response to such an event, to actuate an air bag, or lock a seat belt, or actuate a pretensioner for a seat belt retractor. Typically, the safety device is actuated into its protective position when an impact exceeding a predetermined magnitude is detected by the actuating system, as when one or more measures exceed their respective thresholds.
Such known systems and methods for controlling actuation of vehicle safety devices typically track each discrimination measure continuously, i.e., microscopically, with little ability to discern broader trends which might be generated through examination, for example, of the envelope of the received acceleration information. And, since transitory values for acceleration information and/or the measures derived therefrom may reflect localized events such as the crush of a structural portion of the vehicle, broad trends become increasingly important as crash discrimination algorithms attempt to provide different levels of response based upon the detected nature of the crash.